Minister: 14 asylum hotels have opened since Labour came to power

Fourteen asylum hotels have opened and seven closed since Labour came to power, according to a Home Office minister.

Dame Angela Eagle said there are currently 220 hotels in use as asylum accommodation, compared with a peak of more than 400 during the previous Conservative administration.

She said there has been a net increase of seven hotels used for accommodation since July, as she faced questions from MPs in the Commons.

What we inherited was a system where no processing was going on, where less than 1,000 asylum cases a month were being processed, we are now processing up to 10,000 asylum cases a month

Conservative former minister Sir Gavin Williamson said local authorities are having to reopen hotels for use as asylum accommodation because of “diktat” from the Government, as he raised concerns over the use of the Roman Way Hotel in Staffordshire.

Sir Gavin, MP for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge, said: “Nineteen thousand three hundred and twenty six people have crossed the Channel since the party opposite came into power, and this is 19% up on the same period last year, and this is all in the context of a pledge by the party opposite in their manifesto in July to end asylum hotels.

“So you can imagine the devastation that so many constituents across the country are feeling when they are seeing hotels being brought back into use, breaking a manifesto pledge from the party opposite.

“And it is a total lack of transparency, there isn’t consultation with local authorities. It’s a diktat that they receive with no support and no help.”

Dame Angela criticised the record of the previous Conservative administration in her response, saying: “(The Tories) spent £700 million over two years to send four volunteers to Rwanda.

“(Sir Gavin) may, and members of the party opposite do, claim that the Rwanda scheme was somehow a deterrent, but from when the day it was announced to the day it was scrapped, 83,500 people crossed the Channel in small boats.

“If that’s the definition of a deterrent, then I think he needs to look it up in the dictionary.

“He talked about an increase of 19% in Channel boat crossings since Labour came to power.

“But the first six months of this year, when the Rwanda scheme was fully up and running and apparently about to start any minute, there was an 18% increase in Channel crossings.

“Again, the Rwanda scheme was an expensive distraction. It was not a deterrent.”

She added: “When the previous Tory government were in power, hotel use peaked at over 400.

“I can tell (Sir Gavin) there are currently 220 hotels in use. At the time of the election there were 213 hotels in use. But since July, seven hotels have shut, and 14 have opened, which has created a net increase of seven.”

We saw a deterrent work in Australia and yet they scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it had even started

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour are doing “the precise opposite” of their manifesto pledge to end the use of hotels for asylum accommodation.

He said: “The minister has just admitted at the despatch box, far from ending the use of hotels, they are in fact opening up even more – 14 she just admitted.

“Perhaps it should come as no surprise now that, once again, the Labour Party are doing the precise opposite of what they promised in their manifesto.”

Mr Philp added: “We saw a deterrent work in Australia and yet they scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it had even started. The first flight hadn’t taken off, and that is why the deterrent effect hadn’t commenced.”

Dame Angela replied: “What we inherited was a system where no processing was going on, where less than 1,000 asylum cases a month were being processed, we are now processing up to 10,000 asylum cases a month.”

She added: “We cannot exit people from the asylum estate until they have got a final decision, and we inherited two year-plus backlogs in the tribunal system because they didn’t fund them properly.

“We have in the last period returned nearly 10,000 people, which is a nearly 20% increase on the numbers that were returned last year.

“We are working on making the asylum system fit for purpose. We inherited an unholy mess from the party opposite.”

In response to Liberal Democrat calls to scrap the ban on asylum seekers working if they have waited more than three months for a decision, Dame Angela said: “If that restriction was to be lifted, I believe that would be a huge pull factor and it would have potentially serious consequences.”